Download Contemporary Improvisation program at NEC #####

Contemporary Improvisation program at NEC
Founded in 1972 by musical visionaries Gunther Schuller and Ran Blake, NEC’s Contemporary Improvisation
program trains creative musicians to broaden their musical palettes and develop unique voices as
composer/performer/ improvisers. “We have entered an era when musical labels mean less and less and each
individual musician draws on multiple influences to define who they are,” says current Contemporary
Improvisation chair Hankus Netsky.
Led by Ran Blake for its first twenty-six years, the program is unparalleled for its structured approach to ear
training and its emphasis on singing, memorization, harmonic sophistication, aesthetic integrity, and stylistic
openness. Under later chairs Allan Chase and Hankus Netsky, the department expanded its offerings
considerably. Among the department’s current student ensembles are the African American Roots Ensemble,
the Songwriter’s Workshop, the Jewish Music Ensemble, the Interdisciplinary Ensemble (drawing on poetry,
painting, and dance for inspiration), the World Music Ensemble, the Twenty-first Century ensemble, the
American Roots Ensemble, the Film Noir Ensemble, the Cobra Ensemble, the Indian Modal Improvisation
Ensemble, and composition and improvisation ensembles led by Anthony Coleman, Joe Morris and Tanya
Kalmanovitch. Every student is encouraged to develop a wide array of musical skills, preparing them for any
and all musical challenges that might come their way in their professional lives. In a guest appearance at a
departmental event in the fall of 2011 that included world music, chamber music and free improvisation,
Gunther Schuller (featured in our February Jordan Hall concert), who coined the term “Third Stream” in the
1950s and articulated the idea of the “Complete Musician” during his presidency at NEC said: “I feel that my
vision for this department has now been realized.”
The program’s alumni include internationally renowned clarinetist/composer Don Byron, keyboardist John
Medeski of Medeski, Martin & Wood, Jacqueline Schwab, whose solo piano improvisations were featured in
Ken Burns’ award-winning PBS series "The Civil War," and Aoife O’Donovan, featured on Yo-Yo Ma's recent
Goat-Rodeo project and, for many years, with the acclaimed hybrid bluegrass ensemble, "Crooked Still."
Departmental faculty include violinist Carla Kihlstedt of the Tin Hat Trio, iconic improvisational pianist Ran
Blake, acclaimed vocalist Dominique Eade, and pianist/composer/ improviser Anthony Coleman. “New England
Conservatory’s Contemporary Improvisation department is special because it truly empowers its students to
become artists,” says Rabbi Greg Wall (CI 1982), a celebrated recording artist whose innovative downtown
blend of jazz, world music and Jewish sounds has filled the halls of top venues from Carnegie Hall to stages
throughout North America, Europe and Israel.
Current Contemporary Improvisation department chair Hankus Netsky has taught at NEC since 1978. A multiinstrumentalist, composer, scholar and educator, he is founder and director of the Klezmer Conservatory Band,
America’s premier klezmer and Yiddish repertory ensemble. He has composed extensively for film and
television, and has worked closely with such artists as Robin Williams, Joel Grey, Theodore Bikel, Marty
Ehrlich, Linda Chase, Ran Blake, Itzhak Perlman, and Robert Brustein, with whom he has collaborated on two
full-length musicals. He has produced numerous recordings, including ten by the Klezmer Conservatory Band.
His latest collaboration with Itzhak Perlman, "Eternal Echoes - Songs and Dances for the Soul," was released by
Sony Masterworks in September, 2012.
http://necmusic.edu/contemporary-improvisation
July 2013
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NEC Contemporary Improvisation Faculty (2012-2013)
Ran Blake
Linda Chase
Anthony Coleman
Dominique Eade
Evan Harlan
David Harris
Aaron Hartley
Tonya Kalmanovitch
Carla Kihlstedt
Robert Labaree
Jerry Leake
John Lockwood
Eden MacAdam-Somer
Amir Milstein
Joe Morris
Rakalam Bob Moses
Hankus Netsky, Department Chair
Nedelka Prescod
Ted Reichman
Peter Row
Bert Seager
David Zoffer
2012-2013 NEC Contemporary Improvisation
Student Stats
43 Students
Undergrads: 18
Grads: 25
From U.S.: 29
From Outside the U.S.: 14
Australia: 1
Canada: 1
Chile: 1
China: 1
Colombia: 1
Cyprus: 1
Finland: 1
India: 1
Iran: 1
Israel: 1
Italy: 1
Russia: 1
Tunisia: 1
Korea: 1
Instruments/Majors
Bass: 3
Bassoon: 1
Cello: 1
Clarinet: 2
Composition: 1
Guitar: 5
Guzheng: 1
Mandolin: 2
Percussion: 6
Piano: 4
Saxophone: 2
Trombone: 1
Setar: 1
Trumpet: 1
Violin: 6
Flute 1
Voice: 6
Countries Represented